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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

HILLARY CLINTON'S LONG RUN TO BE PRESIDENT - OBSERVATIONS ON HER SUITABLE QUALITIES AND THE STATE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO'S GLOBE AND MAIL

Hillary once commanded considerable sympathy for the grief
her spouse subjected her to and admiration for her intelligence.

But her time as Secretary of State has in my mind
obliterated all of that.

Her tenure has been marked by the most intensely ugly behavior
towards the world and towards all interests outside of the narrow ones of the
United States and its nasty sidekick Israel.

It has been almost painful to see and hear her as eager
chief spokesperson for unnecessary wars, drone murders, torture, threats, and
abuse of every description.

In that sense she's all set to run for president now because
American presidents for decades pretty much follow the line laid out by
America's military-intelligence establishment in its role of supporting
powerful special interests.

It's not a pretty picture in America. Its foreign policy
consists of pushing people around who do not agree with America's narrow
interests, often killing great masses of them and destroying their economies.

America is not, in any real sense, a democracy. It never
claimed to be one in the past, always terming itself a republic, that vaguest
in meaning of all words for political organization. But now it is an outright
plutocracy. Yes, elections are held, but they are based entirely on money as
nowhere else in the world, and only candidates deemed worthy by the
establishment have any chance of receiving their share of campaign funds.

As we know from economics, firms in less-than-competitive
industries – industries organized under what is called imperfect competition - spend
great sums on advertising and minor product differentiation. What they are
doing with their efforts is building insurmountable barriers against the
effective entry of new competitors to their industry. The same principles
exactly apply to national politics.

Only candidates who can fit comfortably into this special-interest,
money-drenched, undemocratic political system can possibly get one of the two
nominations which exist in a carefully controlled political duopoly.

Hillary has demonstrated how well she qualifies.

And just as is the case of the current election - Obama or
Romney, who cares? - it makes virtually no real difference who wins. Not one
candidate has any leeway to be genuinely different or original.

America has become the world's ugly bully, having killed
several millions in the last few decades and having made tens of millions
miserable and homeless, all while mouthing meaningless phrases about freedom and
rights and democracy. And only proven bullies or sociopaths need apply for the
job.

Hillary has all that down pat, the required qualities
fitting her like a custom-made glove, so I’m sure she’ll run.